There’s no doubt that Marco Silva has worked miracles since replacing Scott Parker on the banks of the River Thames. He returned the Whites to the top flight at the first time of asking in a style more akin to the methods of Jean Tigana and Slavisa Jokanovic than his predecessor. Arguably, even more impressively, he quietly established the Cottagers in the top tier without even the slightest hint of a relegation battle without compromising any of his principles. Silva’s side have taken serious strides forward over the opening weeks of the latest campaign, even after the loss of a player as pivotal as Joao Palhinha, and we can be genuinely excited about what the Portuguese might achieve at Craven Cottage.

But the consistency required to bridge the gap between mid-table stability and challenging for more – something Silva has identified as the next step – now eludes his entertaining side. What’s even more concerning is that Fulham have a habit of starting games well before collapsing dramatically. The Whites were in front against Aston Villa in October through an early Raul Jimenez goal but were overwhelmed by Unai Emery’s side and the surrender to an admittedly slick Wolves outfit after Alex Iwobi had given them a first-half lead this weekend followed a similar pattern. The head coach might have compounded his side’s defensive errors by throwing on all five substitutes – which lead to the hosts having to finish the game a man short after Joachim Andersen got injured – but the lack of response to Wolves’ well-crafted second goal has stayed with me until now.

The final scoreline might have flattered Wolves as Gary O’Neil’s side made the very most of their unexpected numerical advantage by scoring two late goals but nobody could argue that the visitors didn’t deserve to win. Silva’s side were sloppy after taking the lead: whether that was complacency or a slip in the high standards that he has imbued in his charges is difficult to definitively fathom, but too many Fulham players were well below their best. Dan has suggested for a while that playing Emile Smith Rowe and Andreas Pereira in the same side makes this team far too easy to play through and it looked that way on Saturday, with both eventually being withdrawn as Silva desperately sought a way back into a game that slipped away.

Sasa Lukic looked leggy after his injury lay-off but was probably Fulham’s best performer on an underwhelming afternoon. The Serbian’s sharp tackle led to Iwobi’s excellently-taken goal, but he was left doing too much firefighting in the engine room as Joao Gomes and Andre – remember him? – deftly dictated terms. O’Neill pushed Nelson Semedo very high on the right flank after early raids from Antonee Robinson and Wolves found a lot of joy on the opposite flank with Rayan Aït-Nouri, Rodrigo Gomes and the magnificent Matheus Cunha finding oceans of room between Andersen and an overworked Kenny Tete to wreak havoc.

After the positivity of Iwobi’s peach of a strike, things went downhill very quickly. Silva highlighted the poor nature of Wolves’ equaliser – as wonderfully taken as it was by Cunha. Neither Andersen, Calvin Bassey or Bernd Leno will look back with any pride on their indecision during this morning’s Motspur Park post-mortem and the way the Whites handed their opponents a second by failing to clear the danger just outside the own box wasn’t the midfield’s finest hour either. It was the lack of a riposte to going behind that alarmed me the most.

Smith Rowe and Pereira barely influenced proceedings in an attacking sense – and were rightly substituted – whilst Reiss Nelson, whatever the veracity of those reports that he’s already hankering after a return to Arsenal, was well marshalled by the Wolves defence. That left Raul Jimenez far too isolated to do any more than reflect upon how he’d spurned a simple early chance before Rodrigo Muniz’s cameo consisted of a lot of willing rather than effective running. Fulham’s best hope of an equaliser was through a moment of magic and where Harry Wilson clipped the bar from distance, Cunha curled home a beauty after Silva threw on all our substitutes.

The Fulham head coach has asserted that his side will be far better at Spurs on Sunday. They’ll need to be – after watching the way Ange Postecoglou’s men pulled Manchester City apart. Supine sides don’t deliver success: we’ll have to hope this was an anomaly rather than an interruption to the sensational Silva service we’ve been so fortunate to watch over the past three years.